Here are a few of the uses of geothermal energy in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the World:
A building development called Planet Traveler, a hotel in a dense part of downtown Toronto, used geothermal energy to control the building’s heating and cooling. They made an agreement with the city council of Toronto, which allowed them to bury 1,200 metres of pipes in 10 holes in the adjacent publicly owned lane way besides the hotel. (This wiring of pipes allows warm air to go down and cools to act as an air conditioner, but when it gets cold, cold air goes down and heats up and acts as a heater. They call this the geo-exchange method; the entire heating/cooling system is a renewable, efficient, and clean technology.)
In Ontario, there are geothermal contracting companies, such as Geo Energy Solutions Inc., that will assist in drilling holes and assembling the pipes. “We have drilled over 500,000 feet of geothermal borehole in Ontario. Our projects range in size from less than 10 boreholes to over 200 boreholes.” notes the Geo Energy Solution Inc.
In Canada, there are qualifying geothermal sources used to produce electricity located in British Columbia. Many geothermal energy plants are located within or near the Pacific Ring of Fire.
In the world, there are thousands of places where people use geothermal energy either to heat or cool their homes and generate electricity. New technologies such as Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are being further developed so that harnessing geothermal energy can be available no matter the location. In other words, scientists are looking forward to improving geothermal energy so that it is not limited to places where high-temperature water and steam are close to the surface, near volcanoes or exposed in the Earth’s crust.
In general, geothermal energy is one of the most popular direct-use energy source. This means that people can directly use geothermal energy for things like bathing/swimming/spas, greenhouse heating, aquaculture, and more!
Geothermal Energy! 